HAPPY HALLOWEEN! OK. So it's over but I didn't get to say it to you yesterday!
Snoodles had her first Halloween Party last night. Well, her first party in general really. And wow, was that an experience. It definitely showed me that she'll be doing a few days at doggy day care in the future! She was PETRIFIED! She kept wanting to leave. My hand was red for a while from her leash and trying to keep her in place. Oh my goodness! I felt terrible! But I wanted her to be around other dogs and see what it was like. If it's this hard with a dog, I can only imagine what it's like with your own child!
She spent the first half hour about to come out of her own skin. She didn't really react to any of the other dogs...other than wanting to crawl under my chair! Well, that was until Otis came in. Yeah was a big dog. But not huge by any means. Just bigger than Snoodles. But what i didn't realize until later was that Otis wasn't the most friendly dog. When he came in (in his Ohio State jersey...so I wanted to like him), Snoodles instantly tensed up and was ready for war. At the time, I had no idea why. She hadn't reacted to any of the other dogs...big or small. Why this one? And then the hair on her back (the little you could see that wasn't under the shirt) raised up (never a good sign) and she started this deep, low growl that ended up in a very deep bark. A little scary. It's not like Snoodles has never growled. And she barks from time to time. But nothing like this. Of course, all of the employees there (it was at my vet's doggy day care) were very nice and the one closest to me came over and reassured me that it wasn't that Snoodles was being mean...she was just nervous and didn't know how to react. But still, that didn't make me feel a whole lot better. You also want your child to be good when you're out in public. :-)
The party started at 7:00 and it wasn't until about 7:30 that she finally started to calm down. I finally got her to lay at my feet and just kind of watch the world around her. But Otis...not so calm. He was parking at everything and anything. I finally managed to get Snoodles up to the front where they were taking pictures. I wanted til there was no one in line so she didn't panic on me. She wasn't real keen on sitting for me but we managed to get her still long enough to snap a picture. STRESS!
We went and sat back down. We had to wait for our picture so we sat and watched as the games began! They started with the bobbing for hot dogs. Now that was just funny! The dogs got into this pool (with their owners standing right there) and bobbed for hot dogs! Hilarious!
In the mean time, I was keeping a close eye on Otis. He was still barking at everything. And the young man trying to hold on to his leash was having a very hard time. And then things just seemed to get worse. Otis got close enough to this lab puppy and immediately starting barking and then tried to bite!!! OH MY GOODNESS. Now i know dogs like to play but this was a little more than play. So I closely watched...I didn't want Otis anywhere near us! Then a woman walked by holding her little dog and Otis jumped at this woman and tried to nip at her dog! As you can imagine, that woman was NOT impressed and quickly moved away. That was my sign. It was 8:00pm by then. Snoodles had calmed down and seemed to be ok with everything. But I knew if Otis made his way back to us, I'd have a hard time holding on to Snoodles. So we got her little treat bag (she had a bag of Halloween muffins) and her picture and left. And believe me, she was quite eager to go! So was I! I had fun watching all of the dogs and seeing the cute costumes but Otis was stressing me out. And I didn't want Snoodles first experience at a party to end in a dog fight!
We got home and Snoodles was so excited to see Mom and Dad she could hardly contain herself! I think she thought I was going to leave her there. (Little does she know that I plan to here sometime this month.) She immediately laid down on her pillow. So I gave her one of her treats and then she slept the rest of the evening other than to go out for her last potty break. Poor baby. I'm sure we'll do it again. I'm hoping for a chance to take a picture with Santa! I'm sure she'll be thrilled with that. HA, HA, HA!
I'm glad I took her. She needed the experience and I had fun too. I'm pretty sure she'll be needing therapy in the future but that's ok! Better the dog than any kids I may have in the future, right??? :-)
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